Cal Basketball: Bears Blow 26-Point Lead but Beat UC San Diego

No. 4 Arizona next for Cal; Devin Askew returns after missing seven games

Cal let all of a 26-point lead slip away before scratching out a 71-67 victory over UC San Diego on Wednesday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

Devin Askew returned to action after missing the previous seven games with an injury, and Cal had all five members of its projected starting lineup available for the first time this season. However, the reunion nearly turned into a disaster as UC San Diego took a three-point lead in the second half after Cal seemed to have the game in hand. 

And if Cal had lost this game after being ahead by such a large margin the result might have haunted the Bears for weeks.  

"A lot of teams in that situation would fold," said Cal guard Jalen Cone, who made five three-pointers and scored 15 points.

Cal did not fold when it got behind. Instead, Cal did enough in the final five minutes to provide a sense of relief with a show of resilience as it heads into its Pac-12 opener against fourth-ranked Arizona on December 29 in Berkeley.

Cal head coach Mark Madsen called it "a character-building win," and Fardaws Aimaq, who led the Bears with 19 points, described it as "a big growing moment for us."

"A win is a win at the end of the day," Aimaq said.

The Bears (4-7) got their fourth win of the season, surpassing their win total of all of last season, when they went 3-29. But that fourth win proved to be a tense affair.

The Bears held a 34-8 lead midway through the first half and 17-point advantage at halftime. But UCSD used a 14-0 run early in the second half to get back in the game and took their first lead at 56-55 on a three-point shot by Bryce Pope with 8:56 left in the second half. The Tritons stretched their lead to three points with 7:19 left.

In that stretch the Bears lost the offensive efficiency and defensive toughness that had characterized the early going, while the Tritons' confidence was growing with each made shot. 

It was clear Cal was feeling the pressure of blowing such a big lead,

But Cal regained its composure in the nick of time.  It took back the lead on two Keonte Kennedy free throws with 5:00 remaining, and the Bears then did enough to hang on. The biggest shot of the game was a three-point bucket by Jalen Celestine with 1:04 left that provided Cal with a five-point advantage.

After the game, Madsen was surprised to hear that Cal had led by as many as 26 points. Nonetheless, Madsen viewed the way the game unfolded as a positive for Cal.

"I view everything as a positive," he said. "However, we need to play better with leads, there's no question."

Askew, a starter in Cal’s first three games, returned to action, although he was not a starter against UC San Diego. He entered the game with 13:04 left in the first half.

Jaylon Tyson, the Bears’ leading scorer at 20.1 points per game, was not in the starting lineup either, coming off the bench for the first time this season.  Celestine got the start in his place. Tyson finished with 12 points and Celestine 12 as Cal shot 60% from the field in the first half, but just 33.3% in the second. UCSD shot just 33.3% for the game, but it made 18 of 25 free throws while Cal was just 9-for-18 from the line. However, Kennedy made two clutch foul shots with 20.9 seconds left to put the Bears up by three points.

UCSD had a 14-5 edge on the offensive boards, which is something Madsen said he will address.

Madsen said afterward that Tyson will return to the starting lineup against Arizona, but he was uncertain whether Askew would be in the starting five against the Wildcats.

It didn’t matter which players were on the court in the beginning Wednesday as Cal took control early against UC San Diego (6-6). Although beating a UCSD team picked to finish ninth in the 11-team Big West Conference does not seem like a significant accomplishment, it should be noted that the Tritons beat Cal each of the past two seasons.

Cal got off to a hot start, making its first seven shots, five of which were three-pointers. Jalen Cole had nine points 2:18 into the game, and the Bears held a 21-2 advantage with 14:54 remaining in the first half. It helped that the Tritons made only one of their first 10 field-goal attempts.

Cal stretched its lead to 26 points on a breakaway layup by Tyson that put the Bears ahead 34-8 with 8:26 left in the half. UCSD made a push to reduce the margin to 17 points at halftime, when Cal held a 44-27 lead.

The Bears’ lead would have been larger if they had made their foul shots, but they were just 1-for-7 from the line in the first 20 minutes.

UCSD took 28 shots in the first half, and 20 of them were three-point attempts. The Tritons made just six of those long-range shots, though. They had just one two-point field goal in the first 20 minutes.  Cal ended up 7-for-12 from distance in the first half.

It nearly all fell apart in the second half

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